Every self-respecting alcholic can stop for a month

There was a Bulgarian song in which there was this young girl in the begging saying: "Every self-respecting chick in my school wears a thong." It was a cool song.
Anyway, back to the alcoholics. Many people that I meet that are clearly in an an early stage of alcoholism. Problem is they believe everything is honky dory because 10 years ago they didn't drink for a month. Or maybe they got really drunk one day, with the hangover and everything, and then didn't drink for a whole week or a month - until the wedding they just had to drink at.
What they fail to see is that alcoholism doesn't really manifest itself by quantity and by how often one partakes. It manifests in the effects alcohol has on the afflicted.
A normal person drinks but they do not develop a craving. The alcoholic drinks and he wants more. Now in early stages that is as far as it gets. He just wants more but he might stop after the first one or get drunk after thinking it over and deciding it is OK.
I didn't drink every day, hell there are times that I didn't drink for weeks and even months. I thought that was me in control. I would go and drink when the circumstances warranted - club, dinner, BG church - I might go with just one or a few. Again I could do it for weeks and months.
But the day will come when I will get plastered. And for a few years I thought I wanted to get plastered. So it was OK. I got drunk when I went to the club. Or when with friends drinking. After a success or failure I would get drunk by my own choosing. I would get drunk for or at work just so I can prove to myself that I can be better than the others - even drunk. Or so I thought until the day I decided I don't want to get drunk. But I still did.
It is like living with a very jealous girlfriend. While you are staying home and calling her every 10 minutes you only get the occasional fit from her. You usually even think it is quite cute or silly. It is not until you decide to get a new hobby or maybe take a class at the local college that shit really goes up in the air. She starts stalking you around campus, maybe even will take the same class as you just to keep you under control. She will nag, beg, cry, lie, and everything in between for you to go back to the way things were. And you can try reasoning with her, you will try explaining, pleading, begging even. But she won't back down until you are safely locked at home and call her every 10 minutes when outside.
My experience with alcohol was the same. I thought I had it all handled. I thought I drink more and at weird times because I CHOOSE to but I didn't. I just didn't put up a fight which in the end weakened me and almost destroyed my life making it even harder to deal my recovery.